See all those trees? That's the forest.

The GOP extremists---Baggers and their ilk---HAVE NO SENSE OF SHAME.

Toomey, Corker and others are all over the airwaves, calmly explaining how they will shut the government down when it comes time to raise the debt ceiling UNLESS we agree to cut Medicare and other safety net expenditures. I've read some suggestions of 35% as an appropriate spending reduction goal.

In response, I'm hearing progressive pundits assure us that "They wouldn't do that. They aren't that stupid/insensitive/naive."

Hello---?

These "people" don't care if they're seen as stupid or insensitive or naive. Hell, they don't mind being seen as evil incarnate. These "people", for the most part, come from GOP-gerrymandered "landslide" district. As long as they keep the support of their local Tea Party, they WILL be re-elected---period. And, that is all they care about.

The only thing they sometimes respond to beyond their own closed circle is loud, large and sustained public outcry. I'm not talking 35 people picketing their district office. I'm talking several hundred thousand on the Mall outside the Capitol. I'm talking "stalkers" in costumes and carrying signs who show up at every public appearance of key players. I'm talking publishing the names of the individuals and businesses who support these amoral extremists and contacting THEM to ask if they support starving our grandparents or throwing families out onto winter streets? (Find out where they "worship" and meet them on the steps coming out of church)

You know how "everyone" is basically decent, deep down, and will eventually do the right thing if given the chance?

2. Where do these people come from?

3. As a matter of fact---

I believe the Heritage Foundation and the American Family Association have teamed up to open an enclave in Mississippi where God-fearing Christian Anglo-Saxons can hook up---er,---"plight their troth".